“Working with the USGA can be a challenge – some of their ideas don’t exactly dovetail with ours, particularly from a financial standpoint"

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Accepting the 2011 Mustang Scholars Foundation Man of the Year award, Merion president Rick Ill, talked about working with the USGA on the 2013 U.S. Open.

“Working with the USGA can be a challenge – some of their ideas don’t exactly dovetail with ours, particularly from a financial standpoint, because we have to careful how much it costs us [at Merion],” said Ill. “They have certain financial desires, and so do we. But I think the membership of Merion is very supportive of having USGA events here.

I thought the USGA was going to accept that 2013 would be a loser financially, but I guess they are trying to minimize the damage? Sounds fun!

Do We Need Larger Cups Or Slower Greens?

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The first reports are in on Golf Digest's W-I-D-E Open at Pine Needles. Scores were low, play was fast and a good time was had by all. But reading the account of Pete Finch and the tough feedback from the peanut gallery on the comments page has me wondering if we need to use this is an example of what fast green speeds have done to slow down and frustrate golfers.
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Separation Anxiety Setting In As TWoods Plays First TCup Not As Member Of IWorth Team

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Beth Kassab in the Orlando Sentinel as Tiger played for "Albany" instead of Isleworth this year in the Excess Classic.

"We held him in really high regard," said Vic Miesel, who specializes in luxury home sales in the Windermere area at Maingate Real Estate. "The luster of his fame has definitely worn off on a lot of people."

Woods didn't say just how quickly he'll leave the luxury lakefront subdivision just outside of Windermere, but the soon-to-be distance will be underscored today when Woods will play for an "away" team on what has long been his home turf.

Woods will represent Albany, a lavish golf and yacht club set to open later this year in the Bahamas, at the Tavistock Cup, which kicks off today at Isleworth. The Tavistock Group's latest development, in which Woods is an investor, is a new addition to the annual golf exhibition.

Fortune CEO Bullish On Acushnet Takeover

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Martinne Geller and Dhanya Skariachan of Reuters talk to Fortune Brands CEO Bruce Carbonari, who calls the firesale of the Acushnet/Titleist wing of his company "a robust process." He cites four groups of potential buyers.

"There are really four groups of people that we believe will be part of the process -- we think it will be a robust process," Fortune Brands Chief Executive Officer Bruce Carbonari said on Monday at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit in Chicago.

He expects interest from multinational companies, which could include rivals such as Nike Inc (NKE.N) or Adidas (ADSGn.DE), private equity firms, Asian or Middle Eastern sovereign investors and high net-worth individuals.

"This is a very unusual asset. There's people out there who have a real passion for the game," Carbonari said. He declined to say whether the company had received actual bids from these players.

You have to assume though that a "high net-worth individual" has submitted a bid since round 1 ended Friday. Who could it be?

"They make ridiculous amounts of money, to the point where they almost put people off watching them."

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And she said that before watching them helicopter in to the Tavistock Cup as Japan could use a few extra helicopters to help in the rescue of tsunami victims.

John Huggan quotes Catriona Matthew in this week's Golf World Monday talking about men on the professional side losing their edge.

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"Expand the field, have a cut, be more inclusive."

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Oh did I hear it for suggesting the WGC-Cadillac at Doral was not must see TV. But just a few weeks after the match play where we saw a unique format and a daily dose of great golf, it's hard to get excited about a limited-stroke play field where players mostly show up because of the easy money and even easier world ranking points.
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Finchem, O'Grady Find Common Ground Over "Integration": Empty Buzzword Key To Fending Off Any And All Questions

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Rex Hoggard sums up the highlights of George O'Grady and Tim Finchem's numbing Sunday Commissioner's press conference.

Thankfully, they may be dull but the ridiculous idea to further reward the world top 50 with a worldwide exemption appears to be going nowhere:

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